1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an insect trap for trapping and killing flying insects such as mosquitoes and no-see-ums, which invention dispatches an attractant, namely carbon dioxide and octenol, in order to draw the mosquitoes in, and thereafter traps and kills the insects.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Most people hate mosquitoes. Besides the annoyance, the itching, and the resulting infections of their bites, mosquitoes carry diseases such as malaria, yellow fever, dengue fever, encephalitis, and West Nile virus. Numerous control methods have been used including body coverings and coatings, fans, nets, zappers, and slapping and swatting the varmints. However, such methods may be uncomfortable to implement for the user or offer no more than short-term help while some methods do not work whatsoever and some methods are dangerous.
Several years ago, the U.S. Coast guard, tired of wrestling with mosquitoes, no-see-ums, and other biting bugs that infested their stations, commissioned entomologists at the University of Florida to research how these insects locate us in order to bite us so that control methods might be improved.
It has been known for some time that the female mosquito requires a blood meal in order to obtain protein that is necessary for laying eggs, which blood she obtains by biting.
Humans, other mammals, and birds inhale air and exhale, among other things, carbon dioxide (CO2) and octenol, a byproduct of the digestive process. While there are other odors that are attractants to these insects—foot odor, which has a molecule similar to that found in Limburger cheese, is one such mild attractant—carbon dioxide and octenol are by far the most attractive. Heat in the range of human body temperature and dark colors are also attractants.
Mosquitoes have heat receptors and odor receptors on their heads in order to assist them in finding us so that they can get their blood meal from us. The odor receptors can pick up the attractive odors as far away as 135 feet downwind from the source of the odor. The mosquito flies upwind until she is about 25 feet away at which time the heat receptors guides her in for a landing—and a lunch.
Building on this research, a number of prior art devices have been proposed. Most such prior art devices use either CO2, octenol, or both as an odor attractant, while some also use heat as an attractant, although none are known to use old tennis shoes. Devices that use CO2 either use commercially available CO2 or produce the CO2 by burning propane. Devices that produce heat typically produce the heat by using 110-volt electric heat strips or by burning propane. The insects are killed by either retaining them in a bag and desiccating them, trapping them on a sticky substance such as flypaper, or by zapping them with a high-voltage bug zapper.
The prior art devices suffer from one or more drawbacks. Untended propane fires that are used to produce CO2 and heat are potentially dangerous. Not only can a fire spread from the burning propane, regulators, valves and hoses, but the propane tanks can explode. Further, burning propane and other gasses in order to produce CO2 contributes to airborne pollution and global warming. CO2 from bottles is obtained from and released back to the atmosphere, thereby avoiding adding more CO2 to the atmosphere.
The bug zappers explode all insects that come into contact with them. While they do zap mosquitoes and no-see-ums, they also kill other (possibly desirable) insects. Additionally, adding zapped bug parts to the family barbecue and to the air that is breathed is neither recommended nor desired. The use of high voltage electricity outdoors can be dangerous if not properly installed and maintained, especially in the rain and around pools. Along with killing the insects, such devices have the potential to kill the user as well. Many prior art devices are unusually complex in design and construction, making such devices relatively expensive to manufacture and to maintain, thus less attractive to the consumer market.
Therefore, there exists a need in the art for an insect killer that overcomes the above-stated problems found in the art. Such a device must eliminate the need for the use of propane for any reason. The device must be substantially targeted at killing the bad insects, namely mosquitoes, while not acting as an attractant to good insects which are not to be killed. The device must not add unwanted materials to food found in the area of the device or to the surrounding air. The device must not rely on a source of high voltage for its operation. Ideally, the device must be simple in design and construction so that it is relatively easy to manufacture so as to make the device relatively inexpensive and thus attractive to a large section of the consumer market.